Opinion alledging That such Motion would be violent in respect of the Earth which for that it naturally tendeth downwards cannot be hois'd towards Heaven but against its own Nature and no violent thing is durable He added also the testimony of the Scripture which saith God hath establish'd the Earth that it shall not be moved that it is firm or stable for ever that the Sun riseth and setteth passing by the South toward the North And lastly it relateth the Joshuah's word as one of the greatest Miracles On the other side it was affirm'd That the Opinion of Copernicus is the more probable which Orpheus Thales Aristarchus and Philolaus held of old and hath been follow'd by Kepler Longomontanus Origanus and divers others of our times viz. That the Earth is mov'd about the Sun who remaineth unmoveable in the Centre of the World Their Reasons are I. The middle being the most noble place is therefore due to the most noble Body of the World which is the Sun II. It is not more necessary that the Heart be seated in the midst of Man then that the Sun be plac'd in the midst of the Universe quickning and heating the greater as that doth the lesser World Nor do we place the Candle in a corner but in the midst of the Room III. The circular Motion of the Planets round about the Sun seemes to argue that the Earth doth the same IV. It is more reasonable that the Earth which hath need of Light Heat and Influence go to seek the same then that the Sun go to seek that which he needeth not Just as the Fire doth not turn before the Roast-meat but the Roast-meat before the Fire V. Rest and Immobility is a nobler condition then Motion and ought to belong to the visible Image of the Deity viz. the Sun who in that regard hath been adored by sundry Nations VI. We see heavy things kept up in the Air onely by virture of Motion For instance a stone plac'd in a sling and turn'd round about VII They who deny the Motion of the Earth by the same means deny its aequilibrium which is absurd to do For if a grain of Wheat laid upon a Sphere exactly pendulous upon its Poles causeth the same to move the like ought to come to pass in the Terrestrial Globe when any heavy Body is transported upon it from one place to another Seeing the greater a circle is the less force is needful to move it and there is no impediment from the Air much less from its Centre which is but a point The same comes to pass when a Bullet is shot out of a Cannon against a Wall VIII If both the Direct and the Circular Motion be found in the Load-stone which tendeth by its gravity to the Centre and mov'd circularly by its magnetick virtue the same cannot be conceiv'd impossible in the Earth IX By this Simple Motion a multitude of imaginary Orbs in the Heavens without which their Motion cannot be understood is wholly sav'd and Nature alwayes acts by the most compendious way X. It is much more likely that the Earth moves about five leagues in a minute then that the eight Sphere in the same time moves above forty Millions yea infinitely more if it be true that the extent of the Heavens is infinite and that beyond them there is neither time nor place So that to have all the Heavens move round in four and twenty Hours were to measure an infinite thing by a finite II. Of two Monstrous Brethren living in the same Body He who spoke first to the Second Point said That in his judgement the Anger of God is the true cause of Monsters since the Scripture threatens to cause the Wives of those whom God intends to punish to bring forth Monsters The same is the universal conceipt of the vulgar who are terrifi'd at the sight of such prodigies which are termed Monsters not so much because the people shews them with the finger as for that they demonstrate the Divine Anger whereof they are always taken for infallible arguments Upon which account the Pagans were wont to make expiation for them with sacrifices And most Writers begin or end their Histories with such presages The Second said That as it is impious not to ascribe the Natural Actions on Earth to Heaven so it seem'd to him superstitious to attribute the same to the Supreme Author without seeking out the means whereby he produceth them For though they may be very extraordinary in regard of their seldomness yet they have their true causes as well as ordinary events Which doth not diminish the Omnipotence of the Divine Majesty but on the contrary renders it more visible and palpable to our Senses As the Ministers Ambassadors and military people employ'd by a great King for the putting of his command in execution are no disparagement to his Grandeur That he conceiv'd the cause of such Monsters was the quantity of the Geniture being too much for the making of one Child and too little for the finishing of two which the Formative Virtue designed to produce as also the incapacity of the Womb which could not receive its usual extension and that by reason of some fall or blow hapned when the parts of the Embryo's began to be distinguish'd and separated one from the other whence an Abortion would have follow'd had not there been a great vigour in the two faetus which was sufficient to retain their internal formes namely their Souls but could not repair the defects of the external formes at least in that wherein the matter hath been most deficient As the Founder how excellent an Artist soever he be makes an imperfect Image when his material is defective The Third said That for the passing of a certain Judgement upon the present subject he conceiv'd fitting to make this description of it The greater of this two-fold body is called Lazarus and the other John Baptista Son of John Baptista Coloreto and Perigrine his Wife of the Parish of Saint Bartholomew on the Coast of the Seigniory of Genua They were born in the year 1617. between the eleventh and twelfth of March about mid-night and baptiz'd by Julio Codonio Curé of the place by direction of the Abbot Tasty Vicar general of the Archbishop of Genua and three moneths after confirm'd by Pope Paul V. Their Mother dy'd three years after their birth The first is of low stature considering his age of more then sixteen years of temper very melancholly and lean Both the one and the other have brown chestnut hair They are united together by the belly four fingers above the Navel the skin of the one being continu'd to the other and yet their feeling and motion are so distinct that the one being prick'd the other feeleth nothing The first saving this conjunction is well proportion'd and furnish'd with all his Members The other who came into the world with a head much less then his Brother hath one at the present twice
of the radical moisture of plants and animals For they alone are capable of dying as they are of living what they attribute to Fire the Load-stone and some other inanimates being purely Metaphorical Violent death is produc'd either by internal causes as diseases or by external 'T is caus'd by destroying the harmony of the parts and humours which constituted life after which destruction the Soul not finding the organs longer meet for exercising its functions as Fire that wants unctuous and combustible humidity forsakes its matter to retire into its own sphere And though the corruption of one be the generation of another there being no matter but hath alwayes some form as Bees are generated out of dead Oxen yet there is this distinction that the progress of a form less noble to one that is more is call'd generation or life as when an Egg is made a chick but when this progress is made from a more noble form to a less as from a man to a carcase then 't is call'd Corruption and Death if the form preceding were vital Thus all are wayes of Death which lead to corruption The first of these wayes is life for nothing comes under its Laws but is subject to those of Death considering the wayes that we dye as we are borne and that our end depends on our original as there is no harmony but must end in discord the latter note not being capable to accord with the first rest which is the end or death of harmony whereunto our life is not onely compar'd but may be fitly defin'd by it that Galen enlightned by Reason alone conceiv'd the Soul to be nothing else The Third said That onely in the death of men there is a separation of the Soul from the Body seeing that after the death of animals and plants there still remain faculties in their bodies which cannot depend on the sole mistion of the Elements but must be referr'd to some internal principle which can be no other then their Soul Yet with this difference that as during life these faculties were as formes in their matter so after death they are as substances in their place though without any activity for want of necessary dispositions which return afterwards by generation or the action of the celestial bodies producing wormes and other animals which come of themselves and never but from a nature formerly animated not receiving by this new generation any substantial form but onely making the Soul appear which was kept as 't were buried before this resuscitation Thus the death of plants and beasts is the privation of their vegetative and sensitive actions the principle of those actions alwayes remaining But that of men besides this privation of their actions causes the dissolution of the Soul from the Body which is properly death The inevitable necessity whereof is by Avicenna deriv'd from four chief causes I. From the Air which alters and dryes us II. From our own heat which by accident destroyes it self III. The continual motion of our bodies furthers the dissipation of that heat IV. The various Inclination of the Elements some of which are carry'd upwards others downwards and so break the union which preserves our life Albert the Great assignes a fifth cause namely the contrariety of forms and qualities death happening when humidity hath given place to drynesse But because this excesse of drynesse might be corrected by its contrary therefore the Moderns lay the fault upon the radical moisture Which some of them say we receive from our Parents and is continually impair'd without being at all recruited from the birth But this is absurd for then the Son must have infinitely lesse then his Father because he receives but a very small portion which besides cannot be distributed through a great body nor afford supply to so many actions Others more probably affirm that the Humidum which is repair'd is not of the same purity with that which we derive from the principles of our birth by reason of reaction and its being continually alter'd by our heat But that which indubitates this reason is that the Elements do not maintain themselves but by reaction notwithstanding which they cease not to be alwayes in the same state Fire as hot Air as moist as ever it was Inasmuch as the substantial forms expell all Qualities which are not suitable to themselves and recover their natural ones without other assistance Moreover when old men beget children they communicate to them an excellent radical humidity otherwise there would be no generation and consequently they can do as well for themselves as for their posterity But if they give them such as is bad and corrupt it follows that their children who live after their death re-produce much better by their nutrition then that which they had receiv'd and consequently the radical humidity may not onely be repair'd but meliorated And there 's no reason why an exact course of dyet may not keep a man from dying as the Chymists promise I had therefore rather say that as the union of the Soul with the Body is unknown to humane wit so is their disunion which I ascribe rather to the pleasure of the supreme Ruler who causes us to abide sentinel as long as he thinks meet then to any natural thing which is the reason why those that deprive themselves of life are justly punish'd because they dispose of what is not their own although it seemes to the vulgar that they do wrong to none but themselves because 't is by their own will and act The Fourth said What is compos'd of contraries between which there is continual action necessarily receives sundry changes and alterations in its being which by degrees bring it to a total corruption This is conspicuously seen in the life of man the ages and all other mutations whereof are as so many steps towards death 'T is the most worthy employment of a man to consider that he dyes every day For as Seneca saith that which deceives us is that we consider death as afar off whereas a great part of it is already pass'd for it already possesses all the time that we have been which is the cause that instead of employing our time profitably we consume a great part of it in doing nothing a greater part in doing ill and all in doing other things then ought to be which proceeds from not thinking often enough upon death as which no Preacher is so powerful For the fear it imprints in the soul vertue it self cannot wholly eradicate the sole aspect of the shades of the dead or their voices imprinting paleness upon the countenance of the most resolute Therefore the Philosopher holds that the fear of death is not only competible with courage but that he who fears it not at all rather deserves the name of mad then valiant The Fifth said That they who have had recourse to death to deliver themselves from their miseries as Brutus Cato his daughter Portia and some others have
crowned Or. Holland Or a Lyon gules Bavaria fuselé argent and azure of twenty one pieces placed bendwise Ireland gules a Harp Or. CONFERENCE XCVIII I. Of the causes of Contagion II. Of the ways of occult Writing I. Of the causes of Contagion DIseases being accidents must be divided as other accidents by their first subjects which are the solid parts the humours and the spirits and by their several causes some of which are manifest others unknown the malignity of the causes which produce them and the manner whereby they act being inexplicable Which diversity of causes depends upon those of mixtions which are of two sorts one of the qualities of the elements which makes the difference of temperaments the other of the elementary forms which being contrary only upon the account of their qualities when these put off their contrariety by alteration the forms easily become united and as amongst qualities so amongst forms one becomes predominant the actions whereof are said to proceed from an occult property because the form which produces them is unknown to us So Arsenick and Hemlock besides the power which the first hath to heat and the second to refrigerate have a particular virtue of assaulting the heart and killing speedily by a property hitherto unknown Such also are contagious and venomous diseases some whereof are caus'd by the inspir'd air as the Pestilence because air being absolutely necessary to the support of our natural heat if when it is infected with malignant and mortal vapours it be attracted by the mouth or the pores of the skin it corrupts the mass of the spirits as a crum of bread or other extraneous bodies makes milk or wine become sowre Others infect by bodily contact as the Itch the Pox the Measles and the Leprosie A third sort proceed from a venomous matter either communicated outwardly as by poyson and the biting of venomous beasts or generated in the body as it may happen to the blood black choler and the other humours being extravasated The Second said That diseases proceed either from the corruption and vitiosity of particular bodies some of which are dispos'd to the Pleurisie others to the Flux others to the Colick call'd therefore sporadical or dispers'd and promiscuous diseases or else from some common vitiosity as of the air aliments waters winds or other such common cause whereby many come to be seiz'd upon by the same disease at the same time so after Famines bad nourishment gives a great disposition to the Pestilence These maladies are fix'd to a certain Country seldom extending beyond it as the Leprosie to the Jews the Kings Evil to the Spaniards Burstenness to Narbon the Colick to Poitou the Phthisick to the Portugals the Pox to the Indians call'd by them Apua and brought by the Spaniards into Europe and such other diseases familiar to some particular Country and call'd Endemial Or else they are Epidemical and not ty'd to a certain region but produc'd by other external causes as pestilential and contagious diseases which again are either extraordinary as the Sweating-sickness of England the Coqueluche which was a sort of destillation or ordinary which manifest themselves by purple spots carbuncles and buboes But as the causes of the Small-pox and Measles are chiefly born within us being produc'd of the maternal blood attracted in the womb and cast forth by nature when become more strong so though the seeds of contagious diseases may come from without yet they are commonly within our selves The Third said That Contagion is the communication of a disease from one body to another the most violent so communicable is the Pestilence which is defin'd a most acute contagious venomous and mortal Fever accompani'd with purple spots Buboes and Carbuncles 'T is properly a species of a Fever being a venomous and contra-natural heat kindled in the heart manifesting it self by a high frequent and unequal pulse except when nature yields at first to the violence and malignity of the disease and then the pulse is slow small and languishing but always unequal and irregular Oftentimes it kills the first or second day scarce passes to the seventh if it be simple and legitimate but when 't is accompani'd with putrefaction it reaches sometimes to the fourteenth It s malignity appears in its not yielding to ordinary remedies which operate by their first qualities but only to medicaments which act by occult properties an argument that the cause of these diseases is so too Now four things are here to be consider'd 1. That which is communicated 2. The body which communicates the same 3. That to which it is communicated 4. The medium through which the same is done A thing communicated against nature is either the disease or the cause of the disease or the symptom Here 't is the cause of the disease which is either corporeal or incorporeal The incorporeal in my opinion are the malignant influences of the Stars as of Mars and Saturn and during Comets and Eclipses For since their benigne influences preserve motion and life in all things of the world by the reason of contraries the malignity of the same aspects may be the cause of the diseases and irregularities which we behold in it The corporeal cause must be moveable an humour a vapour or a spirit which malignant evaporations kill oftentimes without any sign of putrefaction or if there be any it proceeds not from the corruption of the humours but from the oppression and suffocation of the natural heat by those malignant vapours and then the humours being destitute of the natural heat and of that of the spirits which preserv'd them turn into poyson There must be some proportion between the body which communicates this vapour and that which receives it but the same is unknown to us and this proportion is the cause that some Contagions seise only upon some animals as Horses Dogs and Cattle others upon Men alone Children Women old Men Women with Child and their burthens others seize only upon certain parts as the Itch is communicated only to the skin the Phthisick to the Lungs the Ophthalmia to the eyes and not to the other parts The medium of this communication is the air which being rare and spongy is very susceptible of such qualities which it easily transmits by its mobility And these qualities happen to it either extrinsecally as from faetid and venomous vapours and fumes exhal'd from carrion marshes impurities and openings of the ground by Earth-quakes which are frequently follow'd by the Pestilence or else they arise in the Air it self in which vapours may acquire a pestilential malignity of which a hot and moist intemperature is very susceptible The Fourth said That the Pestilence is found indifferently in all seasons climates sexes ages and persons which argues that its proximate cause is not the corruption of the humors and intemperature of the first qualities Otherwise the Pestilence should be as other diseases whereof some are hot others cold and be cur'd
Mind or the Body being moderate and indifferently temper'd with each of those Liquors may be supported by Men Pleasure and Good as the more natural much more easily then Evil and Pain which are destructive to Nature But when both of them are extreme and the sweetness of Pleasures and contentments is not abated by some little gall nor the bitterness of displeasures sweetned by some little Honey then Men cannot rellish this Potion because they are not accustom'd to things pure and sincere but to confusion and mixture and cannot bear the excess of Grief or Joy the extremities of which are found to be fatal As first for Grief Licinius finding himself condemn'd for the crime of Cheating the publick dy'd with regret Q. Fabius because he was cited before the Tribunes of the People for violating the Law of Nations Caesar's Daughter at the sight of the bloody garments of her Husband Pompey And in the last Age one of the Sons of Gilbert Duke of Montpensier going into Italy dy'd with resentment at Puzzole upon the Sepulchre of his Father whom he went thither to see Then for Joy Diagoras Rhodius seeing his three Sons victorious in one day at the Olympick Games dy'd with Joy The same Fate befell Chilo the Lacedemonian upon the same victory of one of his Sons Dionysius the Tyrant of Sicily and the Poet Sophocles having heard that they had won the bayes for Tragedies dy'd both immediately And so did the Poet Philippides upon winning that for Comedies The Painter Zeuxis having made the portraiture of an old woman very odly dy'd with laughing at it To which Paulus Jovins produces two like examples of later date one of Sinas General of the Turk's Gallies upon the recovery of his onely Son whom he accounted lost and the other of Leo X. upon the taking of Milain which he had passionately desir'd both of which dy'd for Joy Thus each of these Passions have great resemblance in their excesses They equally transport a Man beyond the bounds of Reason The one by its pleasingness makes him forget himself the other by its bitterness leads him to despair Grief destroyes Life either by the violent agitation of the Spirits or by their condensation which stopping the passages hinders respiration From whence follows suffocation and death Pleasure and Joy produce the same effect by contrary causes namely by too great a dilatation of the Spirits which causes weakness and that weakness death It may be doubted under which rank they ought to be plac'd who dye for Love But the sweetness of this kind of death is too much extoll'd by the Poets that being to choose said he I should prefer it before the others The Second said They who dye for Joy are of a soft temper and rare contexture and their Hearts being too easily dilated and expanded by it the Spirits evaporating leave the same destitute of strength and so the Ventricles close together and they perish under this Passion On the contrary they who dye with grief and sadness have the Pores more closed but are of a very hot temper which requires room and freedom for the dilatation of the Heart which becoming compress'd by sadness which like Fear stops and refrigerates and renders the Spirits too much throng'd ad condens'd among themselves the Spirits having their avenues obstructed and their commerce with the Air hindred stifle the Heart That nevertheless the Passions of Joy are much less then those of Grief because Evil more vehemently moves the Appetite then Good For Grief destroyes the simple and absolute Existence of a thing Pleasure brings onely a transient and casual effect and is but a redundancy or surplusage An Animal hath its perfect essence without it but Grief puts its Being into evident danger and changes it essentially II. The preservation of an Animal for which Nature endu'd it with the Passion of Grief is the highest internal end whereunto also Pleasure is ordain'd as a means the pleasure of the Taste for the preservation of the Individual that of the Touch for the preservation of the species In fine Delectation is a Female Passion or rather but half a Passion for when its Object is present it is languid and asswag'd and hath no more but a bare union with the Object that is the present Good which is rather a Rest then a Motion of the Sensitive Appetite Whereas Grief which respects a present Evil is not onely redoubled by the presence of the same but summons all the other Passions to its Relief Anger Audacity Courage and all the Faculties to revenge it self The Third said That if we consider these two Passions as streams running within their ordinary channels and do not respect their inundations then Grief seemes to be more powerful then Joy for it causeth us to break through all difficulties that might stop us it rallies the Forces of Nature when there needs any extraordinary performance gives Armes to extremities and renders Necessity the Mistress of Fortune On the contrary Pleasure and Joy abate the greatness of the Courage enfeeble a Man by exhausting his Spirits and emptying his Heart too much thereof The Fourth said Pleasure and Grief are two Passions of the Concupiscible Appetite the former of which is the perception of an agreeable Object the latter of a displeasing one For all Sensation is made by a Mutation and that either from Good to Evil whence ariseth Grief and if it persisteth Sadness or from Evil to Good whence springeth Pleasure which if it be lasting causeth Joy which are to be carefully distinguish'd They easily succeed set off and give conspicuousness one to the other Socrates would never have found pleasure in scratching the place where his fetters fastned his Legs if he had not borne those shackles a long time in Prison Their vehemence hath commonly reference to the Temper Pleasure hath more dominion over the Sanguine The Melancholy Man makes more reflexion upon Grief But considering them absolutely it seemes to me more difficult to support Ease then Disease Joy then Sadness Pleasure then Grief First because Hope the harbinger of good and contentment hath greater effects then Fear which fore-runs Evil and causeth to undertake greater things for all glorious and Heroical Actions have Hope for their impulsive cause whereras commonly Fear produceth none but servile Actions Secondly a Passion is term'd strong or violent when by the impression of the species of the Object first upon the Senses and then upon the Phancy it becometh so much Mistress of Reason that it hinders the Man from freely exercising the functions of knowing aright and doing aright Now Pleasures and Contentments cause Men not to know themselves but to forget God and run into Vices whereas Grief and Afflictions usually retain them within their duty in the Fear of God and in the exercise of the Virtues of Patience Obedience and Humility Many persons have bravely and couragiously resisted torments and yet yielded to Pleasure And that Emperour of whom Saint
Hierome speaks in his Epistles desiring at any rate to make a young Christian sin that he might afterwards avert him from the true Religion and finding that he had to no purpose employ'd tortures and other cruelties upon him at length shook him by the allurements of two immodest Women whose embraces he being unable longer to resist or fly from because he was bound with soft fetters he had recourse to grief biting his Tongue in two with his Teeth which were alone at liberty to moderate the excess of pleasure by that pain In fine as Enemies hid under the mask of Friends are more to be fear'd then open Enemies So Grief though a manifest Enemy to our Nature yet is not so much to be dreaded as Pleasure which under a false mask and pretext of kindness insinuates its sweet poyson into us And as of old the Psylli poyson'd Men by commending them becomes Mistress of the Man and blindes his Reason Wherefore Aristotle considering the power of Pleasure counsels him that would resist it not to behold its fore-part as it presents it self to us but the hinder-part when it parts from us and for all recompence leaves us nought but a sad repentance At the Hour of Inventions many wayes were spoken of conducing to the production or hindrance of Hair as also to the changing of its colour and some of the chief stupifyers were mention'd that serve to asswage Grief or Pain After which these two Points were chosen for that day seven-night First Of three Suns appearing at the same time Secondly Whether it be possible to love without interest and without making reflection upon one's self CONFERENCE XII I. Of Three Suns II. Whether an Affection can be without Interest I. Of three Suns HE that spake first said That the occasion of this Discourse of three Suns was the report that in August last upon the day of our Ladies Assumption there appeared three in a Village within two Leagues of Vernevil in Normandy But lest any should attribute the cause thereof to what Virgil saith made two Suns and two Cities of Thebes appear to Pentheus we read in the first book of the fifth Decade of Livius's History that there appear'd three Suns of Rome during the War against Perseus King of Macedonia and the night following many burning torches Faces Ardentes a kind of Meteor fell down in the territory of Rome which was then afflicted with a raging Pestilence The same hapned again when Cassius and Brutus were overthrown when the Civil Wars were between Augustus and Antonius and under the Emperor Claudius But the most remarkable were those two which appear'd under the Empire of Vitellius one in the East and the other in the West I come now to inquire into the Causes For if it be true that Man alone was created with a Countenance erected towards Heaven on purpose to contemplate its Wonders I conceive there are none more admirable then Meteors so nam'd by reason of the elevated aspect of Men when they admire them and amongst those Meteors there is none more excellent then that Triple Sun if the Copies resemble their Original the most admirable of all the Coelestial Bodies Nevertheless Reason given Man by God to render the most strange things familiar to him finds more facility in the knowledge of these then of many other things which are at our feet and that by Induction which it draws from Examples The Sun as every other Body fills the Air with its Images or Species which pass quite through the same unless they be reflected by some Body smooth and resplendent in its surface but opake at the bottome Such are Looking-glasses and Water whether it be upon the Earth or in the Clouds Now when a smooth Cloud that is ready to fall down in rain happens to be opposite against the Sun being terminated either by its own profundity or some other opake body it represents the figure or image of the Sun and if there happen to be another opposite to this first it reflecteth the figure in the same manner As a Looking-glass opposite to that wherein we look receives the species from the former and represents the same And if we believe Seneca there is nothing less worthy of admiration For if no body wonders to see the representation of the Sun here below in clear Water or any other resplendent body it ought to be no greater marvel that the same Sun imprints his image as well on high as below not in one Cloud or two onely but also in many as Pliny affirms that himself beheld This multiplicity of Suns which are call'd Parhelij happens usually but either at the rising or at the setting of the Sun First because the Refraction which is necessary for seeing them is not so well made to our eyes which is more remote when the Sun is in the Meridian Secondly because when the Sun is in the Meridian he is more hot and allows not the Cloud time to stay but dissolves it as soon as it becomes opposite to him which he doth not at his rising or setting being then more weak The same Cause that shews us three Suns hath also represented three Moons under the Consulship of Cn Domitius and C. Faminus as also three other which appear'd in the year 1314. after the death of S. Lewis three moneths together Which impression is called Paraselene and cannot be made but at full Moon The Second said That Parhelij do not onely appear upon the Clouds or at Sun-rise and Sun-set as the common opinion importeth for in the year 1629. on the twentieth of March the day of the Vernal Equinox four Parhelij appear'd at Rome about the true Sun between Noon and one a clock the Heaven being clear and the Sun encompass'd with a double Crown of a deeper colour then those which are seen sometimes about the Moon and are found in the circumference of a Rain-bow whose Circle is perfect Two of those false Suns occupi'd the intersections of the Solary Crown and the Iris and two others were opposite to the former in the same circumference of the Iris. Yet in my judgement this cause may be rendred of these five Suns As in the Night when the Air appears serene we many times see that the Moon radiating upon the Air of the lower Region which is more thick then the superior by reason of vapours and exhalations formes about it self a great bright Crown of about forty five degrees diametre which space is fit for the reflecting and uniting of the Lunar rayes to the Eye and by such reflection and union to cause the appearance of that Crown So also when the lower Region is full of vapours and exhalations which have not been dissipated by the Sun either because of their great quantity or viscosity or else of the coldness of the Air they render the Air more dense though serene in appearance and so more proper to receive the like impressions of the Sun In the
may hold in violent deaths whereof the causes may be avoided but that 't is not credible that a decrepit old man who hath spun out his Life to the last can continue it the nature and Etymology of the radical moisture not admitting a possibility of restauration I answer that reasons taken from the original of words are not the strongest and that besides there are roots which endure more and others less according as they are well or ill cultivated And if the reason drawn from contraries be considerable being many poysons are so quick that they corrupt the radical moisture in an instant ought we to conceive Nature so much a step-dame as that she hath not produc'd something proper to restore it And that Humane Industry is so dull and little industrious in the thing which Man desires most which is long Life that it cannot reach to prepare some matter for the support yea for the restauration of that Original Humidity Considering that we are not reduc'd to live onely by what is about us as Plants and Plant-animals do but all the world is open and accessible to our search of Aliments and Medicines Moreover we have examples not onely of a Nestor who liv'd three ages of an Artephius who liv'd as many and many more and the Herb Moly the Nectar and Ambrosia of the Poets which kept their gods from growing old may well be taken for a figure of the Tree of Life which was design'd for separation of this Humidity but also of compositions proper to produce that effect Yea were it not actually so yet 't is not less possible and God hath not in vain promis'd as a Reward to such as honour their Superiors to prolong their dayes upon the earth The Second said If Medaea found Herbs as the Poets say to lengthen the Life of Aeson the Father of Jason the Daughters of Aelias miscarried of their purpose Indeed every thing that lives needs Heat for exercising its Actions and Humidity to sustain that Heat the duration of this Heat in the Humidity is Life which lasts as long as the one is maintain'd by the other like the lighted wiek in a Lamp Now Nature dispenses to every one from the Birth as much of this Heat and Moisture as she pleases to one for fifty to another for sixty seventy eighty years or more which ended the stock is spent Physick may husband it well but cannot produce it anew Aliments never repair it perfectly no more then Water doth Wine which it increases indeed but weakens too when mingled therewith The Third back'd this Suffrage with the opinion of Pythagoras who held that our Life is a strait line that the accidents which disturb it and at length bring Death constitute another and accordingly saith he as these two lines incline less or much towards one another Life is long or short because the Angle of their incidence and at which they cut which is our Death happens sooner or later and it would never happen if these two lines were parallel Now the meeting of these two lines cannot be deferr'd or put off The Fourth said 'T were a strange thing if Humane Art could repair all other defects of the Body and Mind excepting that whereof there is most need and all Ages have complain'd Brevity of Life For our Understanding hath much less need of an Art of Reasoning our tongue of an Art of speaking our legs of dancing then our Life of being continu'd since 't is the foundation of all the rest Besides Physick would seem useless without this For though it serv'd only to asswage the pains of diseases which is a ridiculous opinion yet it would thereby protract the time of Death to which pain is the way The Fifth said That for the preservation of Life 't is requisite to continue the marriage of Heat and moisture Death alwayes hapning immediately upon their disjunction and leaving the contrary qualities in their room Cold and Dryness Now to know how Heat must be preserv'd we must observe how 't is destroy'd And that is four wayes I. By Cold which being moderate fights with it but violent wholly destroyes it II. By suffocation or smothering when the Pores are stop'd and the issue of fuliginous vapours hindred Thus Fire dyes for want of Air. III. By its dissipation which is caus'd by hot medicaments violent exercise and immoderate heat of the Sun or Fire Whence proceeds a Syncope or Deliquium of the Heart IV. By want of Aliment without which it can no more last a moment then Fire without wood or other combustible matter All agree that the three first Causes may be avoided or at least remedied And as for the Fourth which is doubled of I see nothing that hinders but that as the spirits of our bodies are perfectly repair'd by the Air we incessantly breathe so Aliments or some Specificks as as amongst others Gold dissolv'd in some water not corrosive may in some manner restore the fewel of our Heat And seeing there are found burning Mountains in which the Fire cannot consume so much matter apt for burning but it alwayes affords it self other new which makes it subsist for many Ages Why may not a matter be prepar'd for our Natural Heat which though not neer so perfect as that which it consum'd for were it so an Animal would be immortal yet may be more excellent then ordinary Aliments and by this means prolong our Lives And this must be sought after not judg'd impossible The Sixth said That Life consisting in the Harmony and proportion of the four first qualities and in the contemperation of the four Humours there 's no more requir'd for the prolonging of Life but to continue this Harmony Which may be done not onely by a good natural temper but also by the right use of external things as pure Air places healthful and exposed to the Eastern winds Aliments of good juice sleep sufficiently long exercises not violent passions well rul'd and the other things whose due administration must prolong Life by the same reason that their abuse or indiscreet usage diminishes it The Seventh said That Life consists in the salt which contains the Spirit that quickens it and is the preservative Balsame of all compounds The vivifying Spirit of Man is inclos'd in a very volatile Armoniack Salt which exhales easily by Heat and therefore needs incessant reparation by Aliments Now to preserve Life long it is requsite to fix this volatile salt which is done by means of another salt extracted by Chymistry which is not onely fix'd but also capable to fix the most volatile For the Chymists represent this salt incorruptible in it self and communicating its virtue to other bodies Upon which account they stile it Quintessence Aethereal Body Elixir and Radical Balsame which hath a propriety to preserve not onely living bodies many Ages but dead from corruption II. Whether 't is better to be without Passions then to moderate them Upon the Second Point it was said
kind is when onely the Spirits are enflam'd and 't is call'd Ephemera because it continues but one day unless the Humours too become of the party as it falls out usually and it admits of three differences according to the three sorts of Spirits Animal Vital and Natural The Humoral Fever is either Simple or Compounded The Simple is either Continual or Intermitting The Continual is caus'd when the putrefaction of the Blood possesses the great Vessels or some noble Part. The Intermitting produc'd by the three other Humours putrefying out of the Veins is either Quotidian which is produc'd by Phlegme or Tertian by Choler or Quartane by Melancholy The Compounded or complex Humoral Fever is caus'd by the mixture of those Humours which then cause a double Quotidian double Tertian and double Quartane yea sometimes but very rarely a Quintane and others of longer interval which may be attributed to all the different from which Fevers arise The Efficient causes is in my opinion the strength of Nature and every one's particular Temper as he who is more robust and upon whom the disease is more violent will have longer Fits the Fight of Nature with the Malady being more stoutly maintain'd by the parties and consequently shorter intervals because that which increases to the one decreases to the other The Cholerick will have longer Fits of a Tertian Fever and shorter of a Quotidiane The Material Cause contributes very much herein being that which supplies Ammunition to this intestine War which is continu'd or discontinu'd according to the proportion and quantity of the Matter 'T is more easie to name the Formal Cause then to understand it But as for the Final 't is certain that Nature makes the intervals of Fevers purposely to rally and recruit her strength as truces and cessations of Armes use to be made when the Country is almost spent or the Souldiers too much harrass'd and out of heart The Second said That the Periods of Fevers have been matter of torture to the best wits who could not without admiration consider how e. g. one sick of a Quartan and appearing to day at the point of Death should nevertheless for two days together perform all his actions perfectly and then upon the fourth many times too at the same hour in more contumacious Fevers become in the like pitiful condition again Now the Cause hereof is commonly attributed to the time which is requir'd for producing the matter of the Fever and consuming it They hold that it is so long in consuming as the Fit lasts the the end whereof is the Crisis like as the ancient water-clocks of the Romans did not signifie nor strike the hour till the vessel was full Some have imputed the cause to the motion of the Humour and believ'd that as the humid mass of the Sea hath its flux reflux and interval so have the Humours of our Bodies when the natural heat which regulated them being disorder'd and its effect suspended by the disease governes the same no longer but abandons them to their own Capricio Of which motion 't is no easier to render a reason then of that of the Sea the Load-stone and all other occult motions Hence many have recurr'd to the Asylum of Last Differences the knowledge whereof is interdicted to Humane Capacity And therefore they have ventur'd to assign no other cause saving that the Interval of these Fevers being their most proper Difference it must not be wonder'd if we understand their nature as little as those of all other things in the world The Third said That the time which is requisite for generating the Humour cannot be the cause of these Intervals since the Fits of a Fever are longer or shorter though the Fever change not its Nature yea it will become double or trebble sometimes and still keep the name of a Quartan As on the contrary when there is so little matter left for it that it is almost quite gone yet it alwayes returnes on the fourth day although the Fit lasts a shorter time Yea it comes to pass oftentimes that he who hath had a Quartan and is cur'd of all other Symptomes of his Ague yet for a long time after feels the chilness and weariness at the same day and hour that his Disease was wont to seize upon him In the mean time while 't is manifest that the Fever being gone the Melancholy Humour is no longer gather'd together in sufficient quantity to produce it and therefore the cause cannot be attributed to the Melancholly Humour since it no longer causeth the fever Whereby we may judge that the quantity of the matter contributes to the lengthening or diminishing of the fit but gives not the fever its name or form Now as for the motion which they attribute to the Humour like that of the Sea and their calling this Interval the form of the Fever 't is a confession of their Ignorance but not a solution of the Question Galen in the second Book of the Differences of Fevers and the last Chapter refers the cause of these regular and periodical motions to the dispositions of the parts of the whole Body which being distemper'd cease not to transmit or receive generate or attract superfluous and excrementitious humours and he holds that so long as the cause of these dispositions lasts so long the circuits continue and consequently the reason why a Tertian which is caus'd by Choler returnes every third day is because the distemper'd parts transmit or receive or generate bilious humours and excrements every other day But the question remains still whence it is that these parts are affected in such manner that they cause such just and regular periods For though it be true that the parts by reason of pain or heat e. g. yellow putrid Choler nevertheless this doth not infer that they attract the same rather the third day then the fourth or every day as they ought to do since the cause being alwayes present viz. the pain or heat which incessantly attracts this humour the effect should alwayes follow and make a Quotidian circuit although indeed 't is but once in three dayes The Fourth said That as Physitians refer the unusual motions of Epileptical and the violent sallies of the Frantick not barely to the phlegmatick or atrabilarious humour but to a certain quality of it so ought we to do touching the periodical motions of Fevers which proceed not simply from the humours corrupted but from a particular condition and virtue of each humour whereby it is that putrifying Phlegme makes its approaches every day Choler every third and Melancholy every fourth day And as these humours so long as they retain their natural constitution have a regular motion which carries one into the Bladder of Gall and the Guts the other into the Spleen and the other into the Stomack so being corrupted each acquires a certain new quality and putrefaction which is the cause of other periodical motions namely those of Fevers The Fifth
in the acquisition This pleasure herein resembling all other sorts which consist only in action and not in acquiescence or satisfaction But may not it also be thus because our soul being a Number always desires and aimes to perfectionate it self And as no number can be assign'd so great but that some others may be added to it even to infinity so our soul is capable of receiving new light and new notions to infinity Or else as every thing tends to its natural place so our soul being of celestial original aspire to the infinite knowledge of God by that of finite things The Fourth said That the reason why both young and old desire to know is because of the extream pleasure which they take in knowing things But if some be not inclin'd thereunto 't is in regard of the difficulties which abate indeed but cannot wholly extinguish their natural ardour This pleasure is apparent in that we take delight to know not only true things but such as we are conscious to be notoriously false yea sometimes we are more delighted with the latter then the former provided they have some pretty conceits as with Stories Fables and Romances For there is nothing so small and inconsiderable in nature wherein the mind finds not incomparable divertisement and delight The Gods saith Aristotle are as well in the least insects as in the most bulky animals and to despise little things is in his judgement to do like children For on the contrary as in Art the less place a Picture takes up the more it is esteem'd and the Iliads of Homer were sometimes the more admir'd for that they were compriz'd in a Nut-shel so in Nature the less volumn things are in the more worthy they are of admiration Now if there be so much pleasure in seeing the figures and representations of natural things because we observe the work-man's industry in them there is much more contentment in clearly beholding those things themselves and remarking in their essence proprieties and vertues the power and wisdom of Nature far transcending that of Art But if the knowledge of natural things affords us such great delight that of supernatural ravishes us in a higher measure and 't is also much more difficult because they are remote from our senses which are the ordinary conveyances of knowledge Wherefore there being pleasure in knowing both great things and small natural and supernatural 't is no wonder if man who usually follows delectable Good takes delight in knowing The Fifth said The Philosopher in the beginning of his Metaphysicks proves this Proposition 1. By Induction from the senses which are respectively delighted in their operations whence we love the sense of Seeing above all the rest because it supplies us with more knowledge then any one of the rest 2. Because Man being mindful of the place of his original desires to raise himself above Plants and the other Animals By Sense he advances himself above Plants by Memory above certain Animals who have none by Experience above them all but by the use of Reason from which proceedeth Science Men excel one another For there are Animals which have some shadow of Prudence but not any hath Science And as Seneca saith men are all equal in their beginning and their end that is as to life and death not differing but in their interval whereof Science is the fairest Ornament The cause of this desire of knowing proceeds then from the natural inclination which every thing hath to follow its own good Now the good of Man as Man is to know For as a thing exists not but so far forth as it acts the Rational Soul the better part of us cannot be term'd such saving inasmuch as it knows yea Action being the measure not only of being but also of the perfection of being whence God who is most perfect never ceases to act and the First Matter which is the most imperfect of all entities acts either little or nothing at all therefore the Reasonable Soul being the most noble and perfect of all formes desires to act and employ it self incessantly in its action which is the knowledge of things Indeed every thing strives after its own operation As soon as the Plant is issu'd out of the earth it thrusts forward till it be come to its just bigness The Eye cannot without pain be hindred from seeing Silence causes sadness And as we see the Boar and the Bull by an admirable instinct of Nature the one oppose its forehead the other its mouth against such as provoke them though the former as yet wanteth teeth and the latter horns so the reason and desire of knowing appears very early in children even before they are capable of much The Sixth said That the Intellect becometh each thing which it understands Hence Man the most inconstant of all creatures is carri'd so ardently to the knowledge of all things which finding not worthy of him he relinquishes till he be arriv'd at the knowledge of his Creator to whom conforming himself he desires to know nothing more but acquiesces contemplating in him as in a mirror all other things of the World The Seventh said All things were made for the use and behoof of man and therefore he has reason to desire to know every thing to the end he may make use of it The Eighth said We have the seeds and treasures of Knowledge hidden in our selves which longing to be exerted and reduc'd from power into act incessantly sollicite us to put them forth Hence comes the desire of knowing or rather awakning these species which are perfected in us by use and in time wholly display'd In which respect Teachers are with good reason compar'd to Mid-wives who do not produce the Infant in the Mother's womb but lend a helping hand to its coming forth For Teachers do not infuse knowledge into the children whom they instruct but only assist them to produce it out of folds and recesses of the mind in which otherwise it would remain unprofitable and like matter without form as the Steel doth not give fire to the Flint but elicits the same of it So those natural lights and notices being at first invelop'd with clouds when their veil is taken away and they are loosned as the Platonists speak from the contagion of the senses they extreamly delight those who bore them inclosed in their breast and needed help to exclude them II. Whether exchange be more convenient then buying and selling Upon the second Point it was said As Unity is the beginning of Numbers in Arithmetick and of causes in nature so community of goods was no doubt at first amongst men But because 't is the occasion of negligence and cannot continue long in regard some are better husbands more easie to be contented and need less then others hence arose the words of Mine and Thine which are more efficacious then Ours and Yours since even Monasticks take it for a mortification and children cry when any thing proper
well that death will deprive him of all the goods of this world since well-being presupposes being Therefore courage do's not wholly take away the fear of death no more then the sense of pain which is natural otherwise a couragious man ought to be insensible and stupid But he governs this fear in such sort that it do's not hinder him from overcoming his enemy although it render him more prudent and circumspect in seeking fit means to attain thereunto Herein he differs from the rash person who casting himself into dangers without having foreseen and maturely consider'd them becomes faint-hearted in the chiefest of the brunt The Fourth said A couragious man is known by what he attempts without rashness and accomplishes without fear for he always represents to himself the danger greater then it is to the end to arm himself with strong resolutions which once taken 't is impossible to make him retract His courage proceeds neither from experience nor necessity nor desire of gain ignorance or stupidity but having well consider'd the danger and judg'd it honourable to resist it he doth so upon the sole account of vertue and shews himself indefatigable in undergoing toils and invincible even in death 'T is not enough that his cause be good he will end it by lawful means and had rather lose his right then attempt such as are unjustifiable and displeasing to his Prince Therefore our Duellists must conclude that they abandon solid honour to follow its shadow since honourable and just are inseparable The sword is his last remedy and he uses it more to defend then to assault but always with some kind of constraint and yet none wields it with more sureness and grace fear not causing him to make unseemly gestures He hates nothing so much as vice He speaks little but acts much liking rather to be seen then heard He chuses not the kind of death but receives that which is offer'd in which nothing troubles him saving that it deprives him of the means to do his King and Country more service If his ill fate make him a slave he will not employ death to deliver himself from servitude as Cato of Vtica did shewing thereby a figure of cowardize rather then of courage but he will so deport himself as to seem free in his bondage yea to have dominion over those who command him In fine whether he be conqueror or conquer'd he loses nothing of his magnanimity but remains always like himself firm in his resolutions To attain to which greatness of spirit 't is not enough that the structure of the body be large or the heat of temper as great as that of Leonidas the Spartane Matthias the Emperour or the Pirate burnt alive at Gradisca by the Venetians the hearts of which three were found hairy there must be moreover an heroick soul informing this body The Fifth alledg'd that the Original of courage is to be sought in the nobleness of extraction whether it be known or not For though there seem to be some intervals in illustrious families proceeding from malignant influences or other impediment yet there is observ'd generally no less resemblance of children with their Ancestors in mind then in body Eagles never producing Doves nor Doves Eagles CONFERENCE XLIX I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease II. Whether Tears proceed from Weakness I. Whether there be Specifical remedies to every Disease MEn in imitation of Nature always seek the shortest way For which purpose they have thought fit to make maximes of every thing whereas to speak truth there is no maxime of any thing since by the most certain rule of all there is none so general but hath some exception yea some have so many exceptions that 't is dubious on which side to make the rule Nevertheless the minde of man forbears not to make axiomes in all Sciences especially in Physick whose Office being to govern Nature it involves in certain general laws all diseases with their causes symptomes and remedies although as in the Law so in Physick two Cases are never alike But when these rules come to be apply'd to practice every one confesses that he finds them not wholly correspondent to what he expected Now this is chiefly to be understood of particular Diseases and Specificks as the Pleurisie Cataract or Gout For geral Infirmities as simple Intemperatures may be cur'd by general Remedies endu'd with contrary qualities The Second said Specifick is that which is determin'd to some one thing and hath above it the Generick and below the Individual It is demanded here whether there be Remedies so determined to one species or sort of disease as that they sute to that alone I conceive that since there are diseases of all forms as Pestilential Venomous and Malignant there are also Remedies so too and experience shews in many admirable Cures that there are Remedies whose effects depend not on the first Qualities as that Rheubarb purges that Mugwort is good for the Mother and Bezoar a Cordial comes not from heat and dryness in such a degree for then every thing that hath the same temperament should be likewise purgative hysterical and cordial which is not true But nothing hinders but a Remedy may be specifical to one particular Distemper by its occult qualities and yet profitable and sutable to others by its manifest qualities as the same thing may be both food and physick The Third said That this Question depends upon another namely whether mixt bodies act only by their temperature and first qualities or by their substantial forms or specifick vertues For if the action of every thing depends not on the various mixture of its qualities but on its whole form and substance Medicines will never cure as they are hot or cold but by a particular specifick vertue arising from their form wholly contrary to that of the disease For understanding whereof 't is to be observ'd that as the natural constitution of every mixt body consists in a perfect mixture of the four Elementary Qualities in the good disposition of the matter and in the integrity of the form so the same may suffer mutation in either of these three manners either according to its temperature or according to its matter or according to its form Whence it follows that every mixt body as medicaments are may act upon our Nature by its first second and third faculties The first proceed from the sole commixtion of the four Qualities according to the diversity whereof the compound is either Hot as Pepper or Cold as Mandrakes or Moist as Oyle or Dry as Bole Armenick not in act but in power And by this First Faculty alone which follows the Temperament a Medicament acts chiefly upon the Temperament of Bodies Their Second Faculty arises from the various mixture of the same Qualities with the Matter For a Hot Temperament joyn'd to a matter dispos'd according to the degree of Heat will be opening cutting corrosive or caustick and so the rest
and their duration is their age the second are successive whose duration is time For duration follows the existence of every thing as necessarily as existence follows essence Existence is the term of production Duration is the term of conservation So that to doubt whether there be such a real thing in Nature as Time is to doubt of the duration and existence of every thing although the Scripture should not assure us that God made the day and the night which are parts of time Moreover the contrary reasons prove nothing saving that time is not of the nature of continuous beings but of successive which consists in having no parts really present This Time is defin'd by the Philosopher The Number of Motion according to its prior and posterior parts that is to say by means of time we know how long the motion lasted when it begun and when it ended For being Number may serve for Measure and Measure for number therefore they are both taken for one and the same thing Indeed when a thing is mov'd 't is over some space whose first parts answer to the first parts of motion and the latter parts of the space to the latter parts of the motion and from this succession of the latter parts of the motion to the former ariseth a duration which is time long or short according to the slowness or quickness of this motion And because by means of this duration we number and measure that of motions and of all our actions therefore it is call'd Number or Measure although it be onely a Propriety of Time to serve for a Measure and no ways of its essence The Fourth said That to understand time 't is requisite to understand the motion and two moments one whereof was at the beginning of that motion and the other at the end and then to imagine the middle or distance between those two extreams which middle is Time Therefore man alone being able to make comparison of those two extreams only he of all animals understands and computes time Hence they who wake out of a deep and long sleep think it but a small while since they first lay down to rest because they took no notice of the intermediate motions and think the moment wherein they fell asleep and that wherein they wak'd is but one single moment The same also happens to those who are so intent upon any action or contemplation that they heed not the duration of motions Now not only the motions of the body but those of the mind are measured by time Therefore in the dark he that should perceive no outward motion not even in his own body might yet conceive time by the duration of his soul's actions his thoughts desires and other spiritual motion And as Time is the Measure of Motion so it is likewise of rest since the reason of contraries is the same And consequently motion and rest being the causes of all things time which is their duration is also their universal cause The Fifth said That 't is ordinary to men to attribute the effects whereof they know not the causes to other known causes though indeed they be nothing less so they attribute misfortunes losses death oblivion and such other things to Heaven to Time or to place although they cannot be the causes thereof Hence some certain days have been superstitiously accounted fortunate or unfortunate as by the Persians the third and sixth of August in regard of the losses which they had suffer'd upon those days the first of April by Darius and the Carthaginians because upon the same day he had lost a Battle to Alexander and these were driven out of Sicily by Timoleon who was always observ'd to have had some good fortune upon his birth day Moreover the Genethliacks affirm that the day of Nativity is always discriminated by some remarkable accident for which they alledge the example of Charles V. whose birth day the 24th of February was made remarkable to him by his election to the Empire and the taking of Francis I. before Pavia Such was also that day afterwards solemniz'd in which Philip of Macedon receiv'd his three good tidings But as there is no hour much less day but is signaliz'd by some strange accidents so there is not any but hath been both fortunate and unfortunate As was that of Alexander's birth who saw Diana's Temple at Ephesus burnt by Herostratus and the Persians put wholly to the rout Yet the same Alexander as likewise Attalus Pompey and many others dy'd upon the day of their Nativity so did Augustus upon that of his Inauguration Wherefore 't is no less ridiculous to refer all these accidents to Time then to attribute to it the mutation oblivion and death of all things whereof it is not the cause although for this purpose Saturn was painted with a sickle in his hand with which he hew'd every thing down and devour'd his own children For Time as well as Place being quantities which are no ways active they cannot be the causes of any things The Sixth said Time is diversly taken and distinguish'd according to the diversity of Professions Historians divide it into the four Monarchies of the Medes the Persians the Greeks and the Romans and the States and Empires which have succeeded them The Church into Working-days and Festivals the Lawyers into Terms and Vacations the Naturalists consider them simply as a property of natural body Astronomers as an effect of Heaven Physitians as one of the principal circumstances of Diseases which they divide into most acute acute and chronical or long which exceed 40 days and each of them into their beginning augmentation state and declination as distinguish'd by the common indicatory and critical days II. Whether 't is best to overcome by open force or otherwise Upon the second Point it was said That Force being that which first caus'd obedience and admiration in the world the strongest having ever over-mastered others it cannot enter into comparison with a thing that passes for a Vice and even amongst Women as sleight and and subtlety doth and crafts in any action otherwise glorious greatly diminisheth its lustre So Hercules is more esteem'd for having slain the Nemaean Lion with his club then Lysimachus for having taken away the life of another by dextrously thrusting his hand wrap'd up in a piece of cloth into his open'd throat and so strangling him of which no other reason can be given but that the former kil'd him by his cunning and the other by plain strength Moreover General things are made of Particular duels and single fights are little pictures of battles Now every one knows what difference there is between him that overcomes his Enemy without any foul play and another that makes use of some invention or artisice to get advantage of him For though Duels are justly odious to all good men yet he that hath behav'd himself gallantly therein even when he is overcome gains more Honour then he that by some fraud
return to his first habit The Fifth said Nature being taken for every thing compounded of matter and form and Art for Humane Wit which applies them to its own use this must be so much more excellent then that as it gives perfection to the same by introduction of an artificial form besides its natural Marble of no price in the mine yet turn'd into the statue of an old woman becomes highly valuable The Dragon in the Tapistry is as agreeable to behold as the natural one would be terrible And even of things profitable a dish of fruits well drawn is more esteem'd then a hundred natural And who prizes not a Table Cabinet or other moveables more then so much wood a glasse then the ashes it is made of 'T were to accuse all Antiquity of error and unprofitably inventing and increasing Arts to prefer the rudenesse and simplicity of Nature before them which teaching us from the birth to defend our selves by arts against all defects of the body therefore tacitely yields them the preheminence The sixth said That the meaness and imperfection of the matter sets off the excellence of the workman when his work borrows all its noblenesse from its form which he gives it and not from its matter Hence God the most perfect of all Agents needed no matter wherewith to make all his works Nothing being a sufficient material object of his Omnipotence Nature a subordinate and lesse perfect Agent then God makes all her works of the First Matter which is not a pure nothing nor yet a perfect Entity but on Entity in power and as Aristotle saith almost nothing But Art can make nothing but by the help of natural and perfect bodies compos'd of matter and form which it onely divides or conjoyns as when the Architect builds a House he joynes many stones pieces of wood and other perfect bodies together and the Statuary pares off the gross pieces of Marble till he brings forth the resemblance of what he would represent Wherefore as much as God is above Nature so much is Nature above Art II. Whether Wine is most to be temper'd in Winter or in Summer Upon the Second Poynt 't was said They who impute most diseases to the use of Wine because the Eastern people who use it not are free or less troubled with maladies will conclude as he did who marri'd a very little Woman as the least Evil that Wine most qualifid is best in case it cannot be wholly let alone But the Question will still remain in which season Winter or Summer it is most to be mix'd Now there being less heat and more humidity in the body during Winter by reason of the outward cold and closing of the pores it seems that Wine should be taken unmixt in this season For being heat consists in a proportion of the qualities that which exceds must be corrected by its contrary and the weak strengthened as they that would walk upright on a rope must turn their counterpoize to the side opposite to that whereunto they incline The Second said That in Summer the Wine should be more temper'd because then the natural heat is least as Caves are cold in Summer and hot in Winter Whence Hippocrates said that the bowels are hotter in Winter and Spring whence people have then better stomacks the capacities being enlarged by the dilatation of heat and sleep likewise longer through the abundance of vapours rising from the blood which is made in greater quantity when the natural is strong then when it is weak Moreover bodies are more healthy in cold weather then in hot which causing great dissipation of heat and spirits the losse cannot be better repair'd then by unmixt Wine whose actual coldness being overcome by our Nature its potential heat is reduc'd into act and fortifies ours adding also its volatile spirits to our spirits as old regiments are recruited by new levies The Third said That the best food being assimilated and least excrementitious as Wine is in all seasons it ought not to be mix'd either in Summer or Winter aqueous Wine making many serous excrements which cause obstructions whereas pure Wine is good in Winter to assist the natural heat assaulted by the outward cold and to digest the crudities commonly generated during this season and in Summer to support the languishing spirits by supplying new matter But if the necessity of a hot distemper require mixture of water I would have it pour'd into the wine two hours before it be drunk that so fermentation may in some measure turn the water into the nature of the wine and the encounter of these two enemies may be rather in a strange Country then in ours The Fourth said 'T was not without mystery that the Poets feign'd Bacchus new come forth out of Jupiter's thigh with an inflam'd countenance to have been deliver'd to the Nymphs to wash him and that the seven Pleiades whose rising denounces rain had the principal charge of him and that the Mythologists represent this God of Wine follow'd by a company of mischievous demons call'd Cabals the chief of which they name Acrat which signifies pure wine hereby intimating the disorders it causes when its fumes are not abated with water Moreover when Amplychion King of Athens had first put water into his wine and every one by his example a Temple was built in the City to Bacchus erect or standing intimating that as mere wine causes reeling so temper'd makes one walk upright The truth is unmix'd wine is always dangerous filling the brain with hot and pungent vapours which water allays and gives a temper to sutable to our natural heat which is mild and gentle whereas these spirits are of themselves igneous as the burning of Aqua-vitae testifies But 't is less hurtful to drink pure wine in Winter then in Summer when the natural heat being igneous and encreas'd by the outward would turn into a distemper by the adventitious heat of wine which on the contrary in Winter counter-checks the outward coldness of the air The Fifth said If we believe the Poet Orpheus who advises to drink unmix'd wine twenty days before the rising of the Dog-star and as many after then wine must not be temper'd in Summer a custom practis'd still in Italy where in the heats of Summers they drink the strongest and most delicious wines without water Moreover people eating less in this hot season should therefore drink the more pure wine as more nourishing Besides that the aqueous crudities of fruits eaten in Summer is corrected by the heat of wine The Sixth said That regard is herein to be had to every one's constitution phlegmatick old men and such as have cold stomacks may drink wine without water as also those that have Fames Canina but the cholerick and young must temper it if they do not wholly abstain yet always having regard to custom and the nature of wines amongst which if we believe the Germans their wine cannot endure water no more then the water
but one life to lose yet this action could not pass for a virtue since Fortitude appears principally in sufferings and miseries which to avoid by death is rather cowardize and madness then true courage Wherefore the Poet justly blames Ajax for that after he had overcome Hector despis'd fire and flames yet he could not subdue his own choler to which he sacrific'd himself And Lucretia much blemish'd the lustre of her chastity by her own murder for if she was not consenting to Tarquin's crime why did she pollute her hands with the blood of an innocent and for the fault which another had committed punishments as well as offences being personal He who kills himself only through weariness of living is ingrateful for the benefits of nature of which life is the chief if he be a good man he wrongs his Country by depriving it of one and of the services which he owes to it as he wrongs Justice if he be a wicked person that hath committed some crime making himself his own witness Judge and Executioner Therefore the Prince of Poets places those in hell who kill'd themselves and all Laws have establish'd punishments against them depriving them of sepulture because saith Egesippus he that goes out of the world without his father's leave deserves not to be receiv'd into the bosom of his mother the earth I conclude therefore that the ignorant dreads death the timerous fears it the fool procures it to himself and the mad man executes it but the wise attends it The Third said That the generous resolution of those great men of antiquity ought rather to have the approbation then the scorn of a reasonable mind and 't is proper to low spirits to censure the examples which they cannot imitate 'T is not meet because we are soft to blame the courage of a Cato who as he was tearing his own bowels could not forbear laughing even while his soul was upon his lips for joy of his approaching deliverance nor the constancy of a Socrates who to shew with what contentedness he received death convers'd with it and digested what others call its bitterness without any trouble the space of forty days Sextius and Cleanthes the Philosopher follow'd almost the same course Only they had the more honour for that their deaths were purely voluntary For the will forc'd by an extrinsecal cause performs nothing above the vulgar who can obey the laws of necessity but when nothing forces us to dye but our selves and we have good cause for it this death is the most gallant and glorious Nor is it injust as is pretended any more then the Laws which suffer a man to cut off his leg for avoiding a Gangrene Why should not the Jugular Vein be as well at our choice as the Median For as I transgress not the Laws against Thieves when I cut my own Purse nor those against Incendiaries when I burn my own wood so neither am I within the Laws made against murtherers by depriving my self of life 't is my own good which I abandon the thred which I cut is my own And what is said that we are more the publick's then our own hath no ground but in our pride which makes us take our selves for such necessary pieces of the world as not to be dismember'd from it without a noble loss to that great body Besides were we so usefull to the world yet our own turn must be first serv'd Let us live then first for our selves if it be expedient next for others but when life becomes worse then death let us quit it as we do an inconvenient or unbecoming garment Is it not a sign of generosity to make Gouts Stones Aches and all other Plagues of life yield to the stroke of a victorious hand which alone blow puts an end to more maladies then all the simples of Galen and the Antidotes of Avicenna The Fourth said He could not approve the determination of the Stoicks who say that vulgar souls live as long as they can those of the wise as long as 't is fit departing out of life as we do from the table or from play when we are weary That the examples of Priseia who accompani'd her husband in death of Piso who dy'd to save his children of Sextus's daughter who kill'd her self for her father of Zeno who did as much to avoid the incommodities of old age which made it pass for piety at Rome a long time to cast decrepit old men head-long from a Bridge into Tiber are as culpable as he who surrenders a place when he is able to defend it For whereas Plato exempts such from the punishment against sui-cides who committed it to avoid infamy or intolerable necessity and what Pliny saith that nature hath for this end produc'd so many poysonous Plants for five or six sorts of Corn that there is but one way to enter into the world but infinite to go out of it the imputing it to stupidity not to go out of a prison when one hath the key adding that 't is lawful to execute that which 't is lawful to desire as S. Paul did his own death yea the example which is alledged of Sampson of Razias and of eleven thousand Virgins who precipitated themselves into the sea to save their chastity in the Church are effects of a particular inspiration not to be drawn into consequence and out of it examples of rage and despair disguis'd with the mask of true fortitude and magnanimity which consists chiefly in supporting evils as the presidents of so many religious souls attest to us CONFERENCE XC I. Of Hunting II. Which is to be prefer'd the weeping of Heraclitus or the laughing of Democritus I. Of Hunting IF the least of goods hath its attractions 't is no wonder if Hunting wherein are comprehended the three sorts of good honest profitable and delightful have a great interest in our affection being undoubtely preferrable before any other exercise either of body or mind For Play Women Wine and all the pleasure which Luxury can phancy in superfluity of Clothes Pictures Flowers Medals and such other passions not unfitly nam'd diseases of the soul are divertisements either so shameful or so weak that they cannot enter into comparison with hunting so honest that it hath been always the recreation of great persons whose martial courage us'd to be judg'd of by their inclination to this sport which Xenophon calls the apprentisage of War and recommends so much to Cyrus in his Institution as Julius Pollux doth to the Emperour Commodus It s profitableness is chiefly discern'd in that it renders the body dextrous and active preserves health and by inuring it to labour makes a firm constitution hindring it from being delicate consumes the superfluous humours the seeds of most diseases Lastly the pleasure of Hunting must needs be great since it makes the Hunters think light of all their pains and incommodities The mind has its pleasure in it by hope of the prey in such as